Quotes of the day

posted at 8:41 pm on January 31, 2014 by Allahpundit

We hope the thinking behind the prospective push on immigration by the House Republican leadership isn’t as sloppy as the statement of “principles” it released at the conference retreat in Cambridge, Md., yesterday. But that seems a wan hope. The principles could be the opening foray in one of the most mystifyingly stupid misadventures in recent congressional history, so perhaps it is appropriate that they were vague, sophomoric, and poorly written…

For some reason, House Republicans have fastened on eventual citizenship as the key issue. It isn’t. What will matter most to the illegal population is getting legalized. The experience of the 1986 amnesty was that most formerly illegal immigrants didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to become citizens. And it is the legalization itself that will act as a magnet to new illegal immigrants. They will take notice that we eventually welcome anyone who manages to come here to live and work in defiance of our laws…

We set out some of our policy objections to all this earlier in the week, and Mark Krikorian has written in detail about an alternative. But we continue to be stunned that House Republicans would even consider anything like this in the current political environment. It is inviting a poisonous intramural political brawl, and the base of the party will — justifiably — feel betrayed if an amnesty actually passes.

***

Some conservative lawmakers, like immigration reform foe Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), said the party should do nothing. Others, like Díaz-Balart and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), offered full support for the leadership principles and a green light for moving on to legislation.

“It is my firm belief that we can get immigration reform done this year,” he said on a Google Hangout hosted by the White House. “I don’t want to pre-suppose that we can’t. Obviously, if at some point we see that it’s not getting done, I’m going to look at all options to make sure that we have a rational, smart system of immigration.”…

Taking some sort of executive action, or even hinting he might do so, would likely only worsen Republicans’ distrust of Obama’s willingness to enforce immigration law, which they’ve held up as a top reason to leave reform alone.

“When you lay out a major policy initiative like immigration, I don’t know when it’s going to appear on the schedule,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said to reporters at the party’s retreat here. “My hunch is it doesn’t come up tomorrow. It’s probably months out, I don’t know. But the point would be most of the primaries would’ve faded by then, anyway. By the time you get to June, most of them are behind you.”

***

A senior Democratic aide who has worked for years on the House’s immigration-reform effort acknowledged that “timing of the bill is a big part of it.”

“Some Republicans were getting spooked by their challengers, but they swore they were in this and think it’s the right thing to do,” the aide said. “Two years is a long time in politics. They take the vote this summer and they don’t have to explain it for another two years. By then, the presidential ticket will have been put into action, the bill is a law, and the sky hasn’t fallen.”

“Certainly folks are going to feel, if they do this game on timing, people outside of Washington are smart enough to understand that. They will probably be more displeased if they see them trying to game the system.“

If one candidate does stake out a position as the anti-amnesty standard-bearer, it could complicate things for GOP candidates (Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie have all embraced reform to varying degrees) who actually want to support, and campaign on, some sort of immigration solution that deals with the 11 million.

“You could see a scenario where some of the candidates want to do something solutions-oriented on immigration, but then one candidate somehow wins Iowa on a “no amnesty’ pledge,” Patrick Hynes, a New Hampshire-based political strategist who was an adviser on both the McCain and Romney campaigns, tells me. “Then the other candidates would have to morph their positions to the right, thereby buttonholing themselves when the inevitable debate comes up again in the next primary states.”

***

How an intra-party debate on immigration will impact the 2014 landscape is an open question. One House Republican familiar with the thinking of the candidates calls the legalization provisions contained in the principles released by House leadership “ludicrous and insulting” and tells me that, ahead of the 2014 midterms, the candidates themselves worry that “the whole effort will do nothing but provoke a scorched-earth, bloody civil war in the GOP, the only victor of which will be the Democratic party.” Another House Republican tells me, via text message, that the “general feeling” is that “getting into immigration will hurt Senate takeover chances.” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brad Dayspring, on the other hand, doesn’t see the issue having much of an impact. “Polling shows (immigration) is not an issue with huge resonance and each candidate will handle in the appropriate way for their constituents,” he says.

Leadership aides have suggested that House Speaker John Boehner won’t push legislation until after primary filing deadlines, but some say that raising the issue at all right now will make primary fights more contentious than they already are. “It’s not good in general to have an ongoing civil war in our party when you’re trying to unify the party, trying to get people to knock on doors and make phone calls,” says a GOP member…

But this compromise won’t do what it’s supposed to do. It does nothing to address the reasonable concerns of those who opposed the immigration bill the Senate passed last June, and it does almost nothing to solve the party’s political problem with Hispanics…

If you oppose a path to citizenship … you’re not going to find much to like in a path to legalization. Some opponents say it’s wrong in principle to reward people for law-breaking by giving them the very thing they broke the law to get. And for these opponents, illegal immigrants shouldn’t get the chance to work in the U.S. legally when so many people in other countries who have applied in the proper way are still waiting…

Republicans shouldn’t overestimate how much goodwill this legislation would buy them among Hispanics, either. For one thing, if it passed, it would do so with the votes of many more Democrats than Republicans; Hispanics who pay attention to this issue would know that many Republicans — maybe most — opposed it. For another, Democrats would still be able to portray Republicans as anti-Hispanic. They would attack them for denying citizenship to the newly legalized population and, for that matter, to the new guest workers the legislation calls for…

A better idea would have four parts: We’d increase enforcement of immigration laws at the border and in the workplace. We’d put people who were brought here illegally while they were minors but have otherwise obeyed the law on a path to full citizenship. We’d signal that amnesty for other illegal immigrants might be possible in the future once we’re sure that enforcement is working. And we’d reform our legal immigration policies to let in more high-wage workers.

***

What makes the politics even worse for Republicans is that the failures of Obama’s health care law presents them with an issue that, if played properly, could allow them to unify the party and attract independents – the same formula that helped win them the majority in 2010, the year Obamacare was passed. Democrats are desperate to get away from Obamacare as an issue, and now Republicans have given them a huge gift. Republicans were supposed to be focused like a laser beam on Obamacare this year, instead, they’re showing themselves to have the aim of an Imperial Stormtrooper…

Should Boehner defy the base of the party and go through with the immigration push, an analogy once offered by Milton Friedman comes to mind. In the analogy, Friedman compared policymakers attempting to adjust policy based on lagging economic indicators to “a fool in the shower” who finds the temperature too cold, and overcompensates in the other direction so the water becomes scolding hot.

This analogy can also be applied to the way that Boehner has vacillated between being overly indulgent and overly antagonistic toward House conservatives during his time as leader. Having been criticized as a sellout for striking a number of tax and budget deals with Democrats, Boehner allowed the Obamacare “defund” effort to play its course to completely predictable disastrous results. Once the damage was done due to his unwillingness to take a stand against this doomed-to-fail strategy, he decided to get tough on the Right and he lashed out at conservative groups who reasonably criticized a December budget deal as “ridiculous.”

This is a sure loser for the GOP so long as we try to be the party that believes the nation should a) have some modicum of control over its borders and b) that the rule of law is important. The House GOP leadership jettisoned both of these requirements yesterday and adopted a plan that is virtually indistinguishable from the Senate Democrats plan.

All polls show that no one outside the Congressional big brain guys cares about this issue. Commonsense tells you that trying to develop a plan that will satisfy the lions share of the party base — which tends to view illegal aliens as, well, illegal aliens — and pander to enough Hispanics to move that electoral needle in a favorable direction probably doesn’t exist. All the “principles” announced by the House GOP leadership do is reprise the experience we had with every immigration bill since 1965: illegals are legalized (and become Democrats), because of the legalization more illegals are incentivized, and happy talk is given to border security which is promptly undermined by the US Chamber of Commerce, K Street lobbyists, and their bag men…

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rac·ism: poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race

The Democratic Party is demonstrably the most racist party in American politics. From their links to the Ku Klux Klan (Senator Robert Byrd ring any bells?) to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society which destroyed millions of African-American families to the constantly divisive political behavior of Barack Obama, no other party has such a despicable record of treating every race but Caucasians as being LESS able to succeed.

The Progressives in the Democratic Party (~95%+ of the total) are so committed to their racist attitudes, they constantly preach that it is virtually impossible for non-whites to succeed in our society regardless of the many representatives of ALL races that give proof to their LIE.

The latest proof of Democratic infamy is their unlimited committment to “immigration reform” in order to lure millions of additional Latinos outside of America to enter the country and refresh the ranks of the “illegal immigrants” who will be paid substandard wages and denied the protections provided to legal immigrants.

If Democrats were truly committed to equal treatment regardless of race, color or creed; their FIRST priority would be securing the borders of the country BEFORE establishing a path to legal status for the millions of exploited illegal workers already in this country.

The Democrats know full well that their deceptive approach will only incentivize millions of additional illegal immigrants to make reckless efforts to enter the United States illegally while our borders are STILL not secured.

This “Next Wave of Illegals” will successfully compete for low paying jobs while waiting for the next cynical effort by “Progressive” politicians to realize their latest willful lack of enforcement of immigration laws has once again swelled the numbers of disadvantaged workers in our country.

The Democrats will ALWAYS say the most sympathetic lies to win the votes of these poor people trying to live the American Dream of building a better life for their families. Meanwhile, the “Next Wave” will insure those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder will ALWAYS be competing against someone willing to accept less pay and benefits because they have escaped from countries where the most menial wage paid in America would be an unachievable dream.

It is time for Republicans to DEMAND America’s borders be secured for the economic and physical security of ALL of its residents.

At the same time, the Republicans must establish a reasonable schedule working with the front line Immigration personnel and their unions for the implementation of a process of review of the millions of people who have improperly entered the United States and the deportation of those among this group who are criminals in their home countries or who have engaged in criminal enterprises in this country.

If there is one irrefutable fact learned from the history of this country of immigrants, it is that criminal organizations within immigrant populations primarily prey upon their fellow immigrants.

When we have secured our borders and demonstrably deported the criminals among the immigrant populations, we will then be able to integrate the remaining illegal immigrants fully into our economy and culture.

Taking some sort of executive action, or even hinting he might do so, would likely only worsen Republicans’ distrust of Obama’s willingness to enforce immigration law, which they’ve held up as a top reason to leave reform alone.

McCain will just go have dinner with him again and call all us wacko birds again.
He likes the burn.

We accept about 1.1 million legal immigrants per year. Of those, about 750,000 are people who go through our immigration system, the remainder are asylum seekers and refugees.

The United States has, and has had, one of the most generous immigration systems in the world.

Only Canada and the United States, of all developed nations in the world, still grant automatic citizenship to any child born on our nation’s soil.

There are currently about 4.5 million potential legal immigrants waiting in line around the world for the opportunity to come to this nation legally through our immigration system.

To say that ‘our immigration system is broken’ is a fallacy.

Enforcement of our immigration laws, laws designed, drafted, and passed to protect our citizens and legal immigrants from predation by illegal aliens is what has been ‘broken’, and willfully so, by administrations reluctant to enforce the law for political reasons.

The chief executive, the President of the United States, is mandated under the constitution to enforce the law faithfully. Whether that executive agrees with those laws or not is of no consequence. The President is mandated to enforce existing law.

Congress alone may make or change the law in the United States. Each member of congress was elected to stand in proxy in congress for their constituents. They are elected, and sworn, to represent the will of those who elected them to office.

We are a nation of laws and those laws must be enforced equitably without preference or prejudice.

Only 3% of Americans, in a recent poll, agreed that Immigration Reform is at the top of their list of priorities.

Only 3% of Americans, in a recent poll, agreed that Immigration Reform is at the top of their list of priorities.

thatsafactjack on January 31, 2014 at 8:54 PM

Concentrate on the Dem’s greatest weakness, which is Ocare. It’s a winner as long as GOP offers valid solutions that are better than this current piece of crap. Immigration is a killer–short term and long.

Why is it that we never see a legal immigrant’s face during this so-called debate on the immigration “system”? What about those who are waiting their turn, in line, perfectly legally?

Why do opponents of amnesty not talk about immigration in general? You would think there was no immigration into the United States at all. That simply isn’t true.

The entire dialogue and vocabulary of the debate has been hijacked.

The fact is, we are not talking about “illegal immigration” here. We are talking about Hispanic immigration. Hispanic immigrants who are here illegally and numbering in the millions. Is it a problem? You betcha. Is it because of the “immigration system” in the United States. NO.

There is a border. It is well marked. There is a door. It, also, is well marked. Nobody accidentally found themselves in Los Angeles and mistook it for Guatemala.

Concentrate on the Dem’s greatest weakness, which is Ocare. It’s a winner as long as GOP offers valid solutions that are better than this current piece of crap. Immigration is a killer–short term and long.

predator on January 31, 2014 at 9:02 PM

Good evening, Predator. :)

Indeed. Well said, and my congressmen agree with you, too. :)

I think Amnesty paired with ObamaCare is toxic to the nation. It’s not just bad policy, it’s economic ruin.

I have non-racist yet passionate opinion about all those who enter our borders illegally. I’d share that opinion w/ y’all-but I’ve already been banned once in the past year, and would rather not chance it happening again.

Indeed. Makes me wonder why the GOP would even consider it, and then it occurred to me….

If we look at the truly big money donors, both Left and Right, and we set aside their declared political leanings, and just look at what is important to them in terms of their business interests we very quickly see that regulation of labor, wages, and resources are key to their interests.

If we look at our political parties, increasingly they tend to move in the same direction on policies that relate to … labor, wages, and resources…despite the rhetoric we hear from them denying it.

I think it’s reasonable to say that the GOP has been seeing that most all of the Democrat’s agenda has been left intact or actually passed into law of late, either by rolling over, or, in the case of this immigration play, actually trying to pass the legislation for the Democrats and simultaneously hand Obama that second term ‘signature achievement’ he’s been unable to attain for himself.

It appears to me that we have one political class that moves to service the interests of the donor class without regard to the well being of the citizens and legal immigrants, particularly working people, of this nation.

Not me. Not even if lourdes goes on another tear. Well, maybe if lourdes goes on another tear I will make the time.

Pulled castings last night (five new kits). Tonight I need to make up one of each (done), paint them (doing) and create decals (probably tomorrow). Then print and seal the decals and apply to painted model to make sure they fit. Print corrected decals, package kits and have them ready to sell next weekend.

For now its lurk and pop in to tease.

Now play some dang tune people. Or I will go find some Leo Sayer! I need to pick on whoever brought that up in the Superman thread.

I have non-racist yet passionate opinion about all those who enter our borders illegally. I’d share that opinion w/ y’all-but I’ve already been banned once in the past year, and would rather not chance it happening again.

annoyinglittletwerp on January 31, 2014 at 9:14 PM

.
Which is one of the reasons I authored the comment above on the Democratic Party and the racism inherent in “immigration reform”.

Rather than pointing the cannons inside the U.S.S. Republican Party to deal with the 2nd lieutenants and lower ranked scum attempting to follow the lead of the Democrats …

… Why not use the truth of which Party is the “racist group” to attack the conventional wisdom?

The scum MUST be primaried and the RNC Headquarters cleansed of the filth currently ensconced inside.

We are no longer a ‘nation of immigrants’.
The majority of this nation is ‘native’ born.
We accept about 1.1 million legal immigrants per year. Of those, about 750,000 are people who go through our immigration system, the remainder are asylum seekers and refugees.
The United States has, and has had, one of the most generous immigration systems in the world.
Only Canada and the United States, of all developed nations in the world, still grant automatic citizenship to any child born on our nation’s soil.
There are currently about 4.5 million potential legal immigrants waiting in line around the world for the opportunity to come to this nation legally through our immigration system.
To say that ‘our immigration system is broken’ is a fallacy.
Enforcement of our immigration laws, laws designed, drafted, and passed to protect our citizens and legal immigrants from predation by illegal aliens is what has been ‘broken’, and willfully so, by administrations reluctant to enforce the law for political reasons.
The chief executive, the President of the United States, is mandated under the constitution to enforce the law faithfully. Whether that executive agrees with those laws or not is of no consequence. The President is mandated to enforce existing law.
Congress alone may make or change the law in the United States. Each member of congress was elected to stand in proxy in congress for their constituents. They are elected, and sworn, to represent the will of those who elected them to office.
We are a nation of laws and those laws must be enforced equitably without preference or prejudice.
Only 3% of Americans, in a recent poll, agreed that Immigration Reform is at the top of their list of priorities.
thatsafactjack on January 31, 2014 at 8:54 PM

This “leadership” is totally disconnected from the Republican House members. Who elected the Republican leadership, the Democrats? Most Republican House members don’t want this. I mean, if the bill came to a vote, you would have almost all Dems voting for it, and just a small number of Republicans voting for it. This is insane. This “leadership” seems to be controlled by the Democrats.

It appears to me that we have one political class that moves to service the interests of the donor class without regard to the well being of the citizens and legal immigrants, particularly working people, of this nation.

thatsafactjack on January 31, 2014 at 9:26 PM

Evening, MG.

The self same Donor Class is busy getting articles published about how they are being “targeted” just as the Jews were in Hitler’s Germany.

Republicans have been suckered into thinking Hispanics don’t and won’t vote for them if they have a tough immigration stance. This is absolutely NOT the case. They come here with a socialist bent and they want and believe in big government and as many goodies as possible. The ideals and principles our country was founded on and what makes it a place they flood into are not important or worth protecting and cherishing and fighting for. They just want the stuff and it’s clear both sides of the aisle are ever anxious to throw us all under the bus to oblige them.